A conservative critic of Donald Trump questioned the apparent desire many of the former president's supporters have for American democracy.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who was convicted by a jury last week on all 34 felony counts against him, has long presented himself as the only solution to a nation in crisis, but New York Times columnist David French sarcastically examined Trump's appeal.
"You may not know this, but the United States is in the grips of another crisis — perhaps its greatest crisis of all," French wrote. "In addition to confronting a recession, a collapsing stock market, unemployment rates at a 50-year high and skyrocketing crime, the Constitution itself is now essentially dead. It’s broken. It failed, and unless there is revolutionary change, the nation we love is lost forever."
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"Welcome to Joe Biden’s America," he added.
However, French pointed out, nothing in that assessment is accurate, and, in fact, the economy is growing, the stock market is hitting historic highs and unemployment rates are near a 50-year low, and while crime is high compared with other nations in the developed world, crime rates have dropped since the pandemic and violent crimes had dropped dramatically over the last 30 years.
"Yet countless millions of Americans simply don’t know any of these facts," French wrote, citing statistics showing that about half the country believed the nation was in a recession and unemployment rates were higher than ever.
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"If you’re a Democratic strategist, the perception gap between opinion and reality is a profound political problem," he added. "It’s hard for a presidential incumbent to win re-election when so many Americans are so deeply discontent, and these same strategists are confronting a political party that has every incentive to magnify American problems. Republicans want a stink of failure to surround the Biden administration."
That fundamental disconnect isn't just bad news for president Joe Biden's re-election chances, French said, but allowed MAGA extremists to mount a on democracy to gain power.
"The problem of public ignorance and fake crises transcends politics," French wrote. "Profound pessimism about the state of the nation is empowering the radical, revolutionary politics that fuels extremists on the right and left. In fact, absent catastrophic alarmism, the MAGA movement would never have come close to power."
MAGA extremists and Trump himself believe the Constitution stands in the way of their fight for control, and French sees worrisome signs that many on the right see individual liberty itself as the problem.
"The argument that the Constitution is failing is just as mistaken as the argument that the economy is failing, but it’s politically and culturally more dangerous," French wrote. "Reversing a crime wave doesn’t require us to abandon the Bill of Rights. Achieving economic prosperity doesn’t require authoritarianism. But if your ultimate aim is the destruction of your political enemies, then the Constitution does indeed stand in your way."
